ISG Software Research Analyst Perspectives

Office of Finance 2024 Market Agenda: AI Begins Boosting Productivity

Posted by Robert Kugel on 24 January 2024

Ventana Research recently announced its 2024 Market Agenda for the Office of Finance, continuing the guidance we have provided since 2004 on the practical use of technology for the finance and accounting department. Our insights and best practices aim to enable enterprises to operate with agility and resiliency, improving performance and delivering greater value as a strategic partner. We craft... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, Business Planning, ERP and Continuous Accounting

Risk Management is Essential for AI and Generative Development

Posted by Robert Kugel on 04 January 2024

The recent launch of the AI Alliance, a coalition of more than 50 corporations and research institutions engaged in artificial intelligence (AI) development (including AMD, CERN, Cornell University, Dell Technologies, IBM, Intel, Linux Foundation, Meta, NASA, Oracle, ServiceNow and Sony Group), aims to achieve the following objectives: Provide independent benchmarks and evaluation standards,... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, Business Planning, Enterprise Resource Planning, ERP and Continuous Accounting, Continuous Supply Chain & ERP

Tap Into AI To Do More by Doing Less

Posted by Robert Kugel on 14 December 2023

Doing more by doing less means using artificial intelligence and related technologies to make financial planning and analysis organizations more productive. By eliminating low-value and unproductive work, AI enables FP&A teams to free up considerable time for more useful and consequential forecasting, planning, budgeting, analysis and reporting. AI isn’t some far-off capability. It’s already... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, Continuous Planning, Business Planning

insightsoftware’s Portfolio Boosts Office of Finance Productivity

Posted by Robert Kugel on 08 December 2023

insightsoftware offers a portfolio of software designed mainly for the office of finance to handle reporting, budgeting and planning, consolidation and close management, business intelligence (BI) and analytics, as well as compliance. The company’s applications directly address a core issue confronting many finance department executives today: Productivity. The U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, Business Planning, ERP and Continuous Accounting, analytic data platforms

Board Enables High-Performing FP&A Organizations

Posted by Robert Kugel on 29 November 2023

Board offers a platform that enables financial planning and analysis (FP&A) groups to forecast, plan, budget, analyze and report, using a consistent set of data from across the business to speed these processes, improve forecast and planning accuracy, and accelerate analysis and reporting. Board was categorized as an Exemplary Vendor in our Ventana Research Business Planning Value Index, with... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, Continuous Planning, Business Planning, Operations & Supply Chain, Enterprise Resource Planning

A Practical Approach to Managing ESG

Posted by Robert Kugel on 22 November 2023

The emphasis on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues has been growing for some time. I participated in the development of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) as a software industry expert more than a decade ago. The rise of ESG’s profile in corporate reporting is the latest evolution of “responsible investing,” a topic that goes back centuries in the west. The modern... Read More

Topics: Governance, Office of Finance, Business Planning, ERP and Continuous Accounting, ESG, Environmental, Inclusion

NetSuite Emphasizes AI and Expanded Capabilities at SuiteWorld

Posted by Robert Kugel on 16 November 2023

SuiteWorld, the annual user conference from Oracle NetSuite, focused on three topics: artificial intelligence, a reimagination of the role NetSuite can play in managing an organization and emphasizing the value to existing customers of using more of what NetSuite has to offer. AI has been a major theme in this year’s business software user group meetings, spurred by ChatGPT’s brilliant... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, Business Planning, ERP and Continuous Accounting

Workday Rising Highlights Responsible AI

Posted by Robert Kugel on 02 November 2023

Because artificial intelligence is top-of-mind, Workday spent a great deal of time on the topic at its recent Workday Rising annual user group meeting in San Francisco. It was front and center in the general sessions, in the announcements made at the event and in the product roadmaps. The sudden attention paid to AI and generative AI in the media has provoked alarmists to warn of potential... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, Business Planning, ERP and Continuous Accounting, AI and Machine Learning

The Buyers Guide for Business Planning Classifies and Rates Vendors

Posted by Robert Kugel on 19 October 2023

I am happy to share insights gleaned from our latest Buyers Guide, an assessment of how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. The Ventana Research 2023 Business Planning Buyers Guide is the distillation of a year of market and product research by Ventana Research. Drawing on our Benchmark Research, we apply a structured methodology built on evaluation categories that reflect the... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, Business Planning

Business Planning Buyers Guide: Market Observations

Posted by Robert Kugel on 18 October 2023

The 2023 Ventana Research Buyers Guide for Business Planning research enables me to provide observations about how the market has advanced. The purpose of business planning is not simply to create a plan — it is to make better decisions. Planning and budgeting software should make the process faster, more agile, less burdensome and more intelligent so that managers can make better decisions more... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, Business Planning

Combining Scenario Evaluation with BI Delivers Better Decisions

Posted by David Menninger on 29 August 2023

If I had a magic wand, I would want to add scenario evaluation to all business intelligence tools on the market. I have previously written about the need to make intelligent decisions with decision intelligence. The data and analytics markets have evolved so that organizations have far greater capabilities to utilize data in decision-making processes. While there is some convergence around the... Read More

Topics: Analytics, Business Intelligence, Business Planning, Digital Technology, Analytics and Data

Advanced Technology Enables Analytic Autonomy

Posted by Robert Kugel on 17 August 2023

A century ago, the big breakthrough in telephones was the ability to dial your party’s number directly. Dialing became necessary when enough people had telephones to require a shift from people-assisted to fully automated connections. But direct dialing was only a local option – you still needed an operator to make long-distance calls. In the 1920s, commenting on their forecast for the expected... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, Analytics, Business Planning, AI and Machine Learning

The Question of Generative AI Costs

Posted by Robert Kugel on 25 July 2023

As we celebrate the first half of what seems to be the year of generative artificial intelligence, with an apparently unlimited discussion of use cases and bogeymen, my attention is turning to the very mundane question of costs. Specifically, how costs incurred – through investment and operation – will be distributed along the value chain and how this will affect the demand for AI ‒ by whom and... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, Continuous Planning, Business Planning, Enterprise Resource Planning, natural language processing, AI and Machine Learning, Continuous Supply Chain & ERP

Sage Positioned to Gain from Seismic Shift in ERP Market

Posted by Robert Kugel on 06 July 2023

I recently attended Sage Software’s Partner Summit. Implementation partners account for most of the sales and implementation of finance and accounting applications designed for small and midsize businesses, so they are important to the success of the software vendor. These events are designed to inform partners of product enhancements and the product and technology roadmap as well as provide a... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, Business Planning, ERP and Continuous Accounting, AI and Machine Learning

Planful Invests in Finance and Accounting Effectiveness

Posted by Robert Kugel on 13 June 2023

Planful, a financial planning and consolidation software vendor, held its annual Perform23 user conference in May. The event showcased the company’s ongoing investments to provide finance and accounting departments with the means to improve effectiveness by enhancing efficiency. Over the past four years, Planful has steadily improved its planning platform to address the growing demand for... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, Business Planning

Data is the Strategic Raw Material of Finance Departments

Posted by Robert Kugel on 07 June 2023

The Office of Finance can be compared to a numbers factory where the main raw material, data, is transformed into financial statements, management accounting, analyses, forecasts, budgets, regulatory filings, tax returns and all kinds of reports. Data is the strategic raw material of the finance and accounting department. It is the key ingredient in every sale and purchase as well as every... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, embedded analytics, Analytics, Business Intelligence, Data Management, Business Planning, ERP and Continuous Accounting, data operations, analytic data platforms, AI and Machine Learning

Improving Supply Chain Management in the Post-Pandemic World

Posted by Robert Kugel on 24 May 2023

In early 2019, I first wrote about the escalating strategic challenges facing organizations resulting from the decade-long dismantling of the liberal global trade environment and the shift to more restrictive regimes. Supply chain management was upended in 2020 as a series of extraordinary events, especially the pandemic-induced supply chain shocks, compounded the tactical challenges facing... Read More

Topics: Continuous Planning, Business Planning, Operations & Supply Chain, Enterprise Resource Planning, Continuous Supply Chain & ERP

Reasons Your Midsize Organization Needs a Finance Technology Update

Posted by Robert Kugel on 05 April 2023

The chief financial officer of a midsize organization faces a different set of challenges than those in larger or smaller enterprises. These organizations have grown to the point of requiring capabilities similar to larger businesses, but typically lack the staff or financial resources afforded to bigger organizations. The past decade of IT innovation – especially the expansion of cloud computing... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, Business Planning, ERP and Continuous Accounting

Now with the Miracle Ingredient AI!

Posted by Robert Kugel on 30 March 2023

Early last December, just before ChatGPT became the new, bright, shiny object, The Economist magazine ran a story proclaiming that we had finally arrived at the age of boring artificial intelligence (AI). From my perspective, it’s unfortunate that didn’t last and that AI has been relegated back to the buzzword league. AI will be an increasingly important feature of business software through the... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, Business Intelligence, Business Planning, Enterprise Resource Planning, ERP and Continuous Accounting, natural language processing, continuous supply chain, AI and Machine Learning

More Effective Contingency Planning Improves Agility

Posted by Robert Kugel on 28 February 2023

We live in a time of uncertainty, not unpredictability. Managing an organization in uncertain times is always hard, but tools are available to improve the odds for success by making it easier and faster to plan for contingencies and scenarios. Software makes it possible to quickly consider the impact of a range of events or assumptions and devise a set of plans to deal with them. Dedicated... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, Data Management, Business Planning, AI and Machine Learning